Welcome to the Piano World Piano ForumsOver 2.5 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I tuned a Cable Nelson today that had Everett all over the plate. The owner bought it about 20+ years ago in New York which is about when it was last tuned. He told me on the phone he didn't need to have it tuned to 440. When I got there I checked the pitch and it was 49 cents flat- 1 cent shy of being off the Accufork. Anyway there ws no reason not to tune it to pitch- plenty of tuning pin height, coil to plate clearance, lack of rust. I did notice newer bass strings and several newer, shinier steel strings after the bass/treble break. I did 2 pitch raises and then fine tuned it with no problem. Total time was about 2 hours. Owners wife said the last guy spent hours on it. The last guy was probably the guy who popped the strings. Anyway she wants a 6 month reminder. We will see what happens when I mail the postcard out in June.

Everett in Michigan made some above average pianos - probably why Yamaha chose to take over the plant. They also made some stencils, which is the piano you had today. I've seen some interesting Yamaha/Everett hybrid combo pianos, made during the transition. They have features from both companies. Yamaha eventually closed the Everett Plant. An Everett Cable/Nelson beats an Aolian Cable/nelson for build quality hands down.

Everett Piano is indeed shut down, it was somewhere in the 70s. The plant was in South Haven, Michigan for many many years before Yamaha bought them and then closed the factory.

I live in south Haven and the old plant is being torn down as we speak to make way for yet more ugly apartment buildings (the developers like to call them condos but they are, in fact, apartment buildings). Generations of my friends and family worked there with pride. It's indeed a sad sight.

Everetts and Cable Nelsons (slightly lower quality) are very good pianos of various styles. There is even a 9' Everett here in a clubhouse that Everett created as a prototype. I have played it several times from when I was in High School in the 50s until now and it's impressing.

I tuned an Everett Cable Nelson Spinet today. Not a bad little piano for a spinet. I bet Yamaha needed the equipment in the plant to help the US manufacturing. Why did they move South? Was it labor? Raw materials?

I'm actually not positive why they moved. I was living in New Jersey at the time all that was going on (we've been back in Michigan for the last 30 years)and I've heard several stories over the years. The one I believe is that business was down and they consolidated operations with their plant in Georgia.

I felt guilty about owning a Yamaha piano at the time because I was so mad at them. I know it was just business to them but it sure hurt a lot of people here. South Haven is a very small town of about 6,000 people.

I tune a few of the Everett/Yamaha hybrids mentioned above. I find them, sound-wise, to be superior to both Everett and Yamaha. One is a 45" studio, and the other a 48" upright.

I also tune a 6' Everett/Yamaha grand. It's in a Baptist church, and this thing gets played! Yet, it ranks as one of the nicest pianos I tune. The tuning rarely budges from A-440, and it has not developed the standard Yamaha "bright" tone.

I owned an Everett 11 (Oak school model studio) from the early Yamaha/Everett era. It was a great piano, especially for the money.

It seems that some of the pianos made after the decision was made by Yamaha to close the South Haven factory were of lesser quality. I've seen many where the hammer return springs have begun breaking en masse, and some where the damper lever felt is so soft that the spoons dig in and cause sluggish or sticking keys.

Didn't Baldwin buy the name and produce some really low quality pianos bearing the Everett brand?